Computational Analysis of Critical Experiments for Uranium-Water Lattices of VVER Type with a Relatively Highly Enriched Fuel and Erbium Oxide Absorbers

A series of experiments was performed at the P critical facility of the National Research Center Kurchatov Institute to study neutron characteristics of the VVER type water-uranium fuel compositions that contain fuel pins with uranium enriched up to 6.5% in 235 U and erbium oxide (Er 2 O 3 ) absorbers. Computational analysis of experiments was carried out by means of the precision MCU-PD code and the best-estimate code TVS-M, which are used for the VVER fuel cycle design. This paper describes the computational models implemented in both of these codes and presents the results of calculations of the main critical parameters in comparison with the experimental data.